In the plant kingdom, we can divide plants into four different groups. These groups are mosses and liverworts, ferns, gymnosperms, and angiosperms. Are we familiar with wild plants?
Wild plants are in among the above-mentioned categories. Basically term “wild” indicates the plants which are not being planted by humans, they grow where there is likelihood for their growth and habitat. We are discovering such plants every day. Still we haven’t even discovered half of them.
But, the botanists who have interest in wild herbology they are working in forests from dawn to dusk to find-out their miraculous benefits. They are the base of modern-day drug development. More than 50 percent drugs have been developed through constituents of these plants. Let’s discuss their nature, their characteristics and their uses.
Common Wild Medicinal Plants
- Achillea millefolium (Yarrow)
Exceptionally normal and simple to identify from to its fluffy leaves. Yarrow can be found in generally grassy field. The flowers show up from June to October and make Yarrow resemble an individual from the Apiaceae (Umbellifer) family, in spite of the fact that it is really an individual from the Daisy family.
Yarrow taste is simply neutral with a somewhat therapeutic taste. Yarrow can be utilized to staunch seeping from wounds and nose drains. It additionally contains salicylic acid which Aspirin is integrated from and was utilized to treat fevers.
- Allium ursinum (Wild Garlic)
The entire plant can be utilized crude or cooked and can typically be found in extraordinary swathes making gathering it brisk and simple yet be mindful so as not to get other stray leaves while gathering.
It is ideal to disregard the roots as the leaves are more delicious and there are no ‘knobs’ just some little roots, rather like a spring onion.
This plant is known to decrease hypertension and cholesterol levels and like knob garlic has more restorative cases than space to print them.
- Asparagus officinalis (Asparagus)
Wild Asparagus is extremely the gotten away developed plant, yet a couple of various assortments can develop in the UK. On the off chance that you realize where a years ago asparagus was developing from search for the crisp lances rising up out of the ground.
From March to June or albeit a lot littler, some of the time the upstanding tips develop from the branchlets and look and taste simply like little developed asparagus and can be cooked and eaten similarly later in the year. Asparagus can be utilized as a diuretic, a purgative or a kidney tonic. Generally utilized as a aphrodisiac.
- Borago officinalis (Borage)
The excellent minimal blue blossoms have five restricted, triangular-pointed petals. Blossoms are frequently blue in shading, albeit pink blooms are once in a while found in nature. Borage tastes simply like cucumber.
The youthful leaves can be picked as the plant develops, at that point abandon it for some time until it begins to blossom, you would then be able to gather heaps of blooms day by day from each plant, borage can blossom for extremely significant lots. Generally, Borage was utilized in gastrointestinal, respiratory and cardiovascular clutters.
- Betula pendula (Silver Birch)
The Birch is a pioneer species and was one of the main trees to colonize Great Britain after the last ice age yet fleeting so it helps structure forest however is before long overwhelmed by different trees. The bark of the Silver Birch is extremely particular and can seem smooth silver or white with even striations when youthful to having profoundly furrowed dark, unpleasant, patches.
Birch sap contains Betulin and Betulenic acid which are both incredible at boosting the immune framework in people and tests have discovered that it can enable the immune status to perceive cancer cells and demolish them helping in the battle against malignant growth. The bark can be absorbed water and shaped into a station for broken bones.
- Bellis perenis (Daisy)
Daisies are easy to identify, and they are easy to find but we don’t really use them due to their bitter, medicinal taste, each to his own. The name Daisy appears to have originated from ‘days eye‘, as the blossom opens at day break and closes at nightfall. Useful for making Daisy chains! An extract of daisy used to be used to help heal wounds.
- Capsella bursa-pastoris (Shepherd’s Purse)
This basic plant has been utilized as a sustenance throughout the hundreds of years and gets its name from the seed cases or ‘handbags’ that contain the seeds or ‘coins’. These seeds however modest have been utilized as an element for breads or dampers by being cooked and ground into a flour.
The dried blooms and leaves of Shepherd’s Purse, utilized as a tea, are said to be useful for halting inward and outer draining especially the kidneys. It was utilized for this reason in the Great War. A portion of the tea (cold) can be utilized on a cotton bud to staunch nosebleeds.
I have mentions lots of characteristics of these ethnobotanicals, that how they are benefiting mankind. Because, they have very long history, and no one knows that when they were used for the first time. So, we pay attention that deforestation is the major cause of their extinction.
We are business mind people we make wrong decisions to kill forests to earn illegal revenue. But we are destroying out habitat along them. Deforestation is leading to climate change. If it continued this way, the end will be really fatal. We cannot live without these plants. But they can live without us. Please pay attention to this issue and think.
Authors: Nauman Iftikhar1, Rao Zahid Abbas1, Zohaib Saeed1, Mudassar Mehmood1, Hammad Ur Rehman Bajwa1, Muhammad Umair1
- Department of Parasitology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad